Located at the junction of St. James and Julian Streets in San Jose, California, a statue is now in the process of being removed. It is just the latest effort by radical leftists to remove anything honoring individuals they consider villains of history — anything that, in any way, promotes the Christian Western civilization that has brought liberty and economic prosperity to the world.
The statue is of Thomas Fallon, on horseback and raising the American flag in San Jose soon after Congress declared war on Mexico in 1946. California, with San Jose, came into the possession of the United States as a result of the Mexican War, fought from 1846 to 1848.
Charlene Nijmeh, the leader of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, was supportive of the statue’s removal. “They hear our voice,” Nijmeh told the San Jose Spotlight. “It’s been a 30-year struggle. This is Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month. What that statue represents is the genocide that happened here. We were the people that were impacted. We’re getting justice.”
Numerous statues and other symbols have been removed over the past few years, all in the name of “justice” for this or that supposedly oppressed group.
For example, a 21-foot bronze statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee was removed in Richmond, Virginia, in September 2021. The statue, which was cut in two and removed from its base, was supposedly a symbol of what then-Governor Ralph Northam called “Four hundred years of history that we should not be proud of.”
In its reporting of the statue’s removal, even the Daily Mail called Lee “a prominent slave owner.”
This is an example advancing a political agenda by not telling the whole truth. Lee inherited slaves from his father-in-law, and quickly freed them. Technically, then, Lee was a slave owner, but the assertion that he was a prominent slave owner is very deceitful.
In March 2019, students at New York’s Hofstra University called for the removal of a statue of Thomas Jefferson, arguing in a petition that “Jefferson’s values aided in the construction of institutional racism.” The Democrats of Hofstra University joined in calling for removing a statue of the man Democrats used to claim as the founder of their political party.
Miranda Pino, board member of the Democratic group, charged that the statue represented a “legacy of racism and bigotry.”
A counter-petition collected hundreds of signatures. Petition circulator Richard Caldwell explained why he opposed removing the Jefferson statue, noting that for “thousands of years, tyranny reigned supreme.… Thomas Jefferson wrote the document that changed all that. The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson and put forth the idea that freedom should ring the loudest.”
It should also be noted that it was Jefferson who insisted that slavery be banned in the Northwest Territory in 1787, and that it was Jefferson who, as president, signed the legislation ending the importation of slaves into the United States.
What the agitation at Hofstra University and in Virginia was really about is denigrating those men who founded our nation as a constitutional republic, with a limited government. When the anti-Confederate frenzy began, with its targeting of statues of Confederate icons, many observers warned that this Taliban-like assault was just the beginning of a broader effort to destroy the foundations of that constitutional republic. The Confederates were just the low-hanging fruit, so to speak. Once the precedent was established of tearing down statues of men such Robert E. Lee, the cultural subverters would soon turn to men such as Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.
In March 2017, a statue dedicated to Christopher Columbus was removed at Pepperdine University, a Christian college in Malibu, California. President Andrew Benton explained that Columbus represented the oppression of “Native peoples,” arguing that “stories of conquest and the art associated therewith are painful reminders of loss and human tragedy.”
The statue had been donated to the university in 1992 by Columbus 500 Congress, upon the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery of the New World. No doubt the group mistakenly believed that Pepperdine, with its reputation as a conservative Christian college, would appreciate the man responsible for first bringing the Christian faith to the New World.
Removing a statue of a man associated with the U.S. taking over California is also perplexing. One wonders: Do these radicals really believe that California would be better off as part of the Republic of Mexico, or for that matter the Spanish Empire from which they seceded?
“It’s the right thing to do,” insisted Carlos Velazquez, a spokesperson for the San Jose Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs.
Unfortunately, many Americans today have bought into the argument that the U.S. victory over Mexico was simply a war of aggression by the United States, and was unjustified. For example, it is often said that President James Knox Polk sent American soldiers into an area of southern Texas that was in dispute with Mexico, thus provoking war. But, of course, had there been no Mexican soldiers in that disputed area — soldiers who attacked and killed the smaller American forces — there would have been no battle or casualties. One could just as well say that the Mexican government was provoking a conflict. But, sadly, probably most Americans believe their own country was the aggressor, not Mexico.
The above are, unfortunately, only a few examples of the push to remove statues of heroic figures such as Lee, Jefferson, Columbus, and now Fallon. What is this all about?
It is an effort to advance the Marxist propaganda that America was founded upon the idea of oppression. Once iconic figures of America’s founding are besmirched, our Republic can be replaced with another form of government.
